Ever had a crisis with your period when you were stuck without supplies?

Imagine going through that every single month.

The International Day of The Girl is a good day to be aware that something called “period poverty’ affects 1.2 billion girls and women all over the world. (The United Nations General Assembly designated Oct. 11 as International Day of the Girl six years ago.)

When women have no money for menstrual pads or tampons, the results can be life-altering.With no supplies available, adolescent girls in developing countries often stay home for a week every month, falling behind in school and eventually dropping out altogether. Obviously, their employment opportunities are limited thereafter.

Compassion Canada, a Christian group working with children around the world, has had success with this issue in Mulatsi, Uganda. They funded a church group there so that church staff could educate locals on the importance of menstrual hygiene and teach people how to make reusable sanitary pads.

Misty Ropp

Teachers, parents and local leaders — male and female — got involved. The girls got sustainable, reusable period supplies; some of the local men got work (and a paycheque) doing the sewing, and a lot of people let go of the usual misinformation about female bodily functions.

Misty Ropp, of Compassion Canada, shared this success story with the Toronto Sun by telephone on Wednesday. (Ropp and her husband sponsor three children in Honduras through Compassion.)

“We are promoting awareness of some of the unique challenges girls face,” says Ropp. “I certainly don’t think about it when I have my period. Just realizing the impact of not having proper materials — girls miss 25% of their schooling, they can’t keep up, and eventually, they drop out. And then they can’t get good jobs later.” Worse yet, says Ropp, they can become fodder for child marriage, trafficking and domestic abuse.

“They need pads just to stay in school.”

It’s not cheap. Someone in the UK did the math and determined that a woman spends about $8,500 over a lifetime to manage her period. That’s no small chunk of change. Here is where we might insert a joke about PMS and the cost of bullets, but … nah.

Ropp notes that period poverty exists in Canada, too. “It’s not just in developing countries. About a third of Canadian women under 25 said they struggle to afford supplies. In low-income families girls miss school over this.”

Meanwhile, the project in Uganda is a win/win, and it’s remarkable that the men in the village took part.Now they work hard to empower their daughters. How did that happen?

One man joined in, and despite being shamed by his peers, he held firm and began to influence other men. More got on board, and then more.

“The women led, and the men slowly got involved,” says Ropp.

Sounds familiar.

Compassion Canada supports nearly two million children worldwide. Their work is undertaken on a local level, in partnership with churches, and each church helps between 200 to 400 children.